Theosophical Society of buffalo:City Of Light Study center

﻿﻿﻿We encourage open-minded inquiry into world religions, philosophy, science, and the arts in order to understand the wisdom of the ages, respect the unity of all life, and help people explore spiritual self-transformation.

Artist: Joma SipeThe Theosophical Society in America and its imprint Quest Books are excited to announce the launch of "Soul of Light: Works of Illumination," a new art exhibit in the Olcott Gallery located inside the Theosophical Society in America national headquarters in Wheaton, Ill. The exhibit will feature 12 stunning works of visionary art by Portuguese artist Joma Sipe. Beautiful and inspiring, each piece in the collection is intended as a tool for meditation and is drawn from the wisdom of the world's great mystical traditions.Sipe considers his artwork as sacred geometry that unites this temporal world with higher planes. He begins each painting by drawing lines across a blank canvas with a silver or gold ink pen until it is filled. He then energizes certain points with crystals, a process that infuses the work with spiritual intensity. Finally, he adds light and soft-color computer effects to achieve an ethereal quality. The resulting artwork is as inspiring as it is beautiful.

All Meetings are held at the North Park Branch Library, 975 Hertel Avenue, Buffalo NY

Next Meeting: ​Saturday, November 17th, 1:00-3:00pm

The Religion of Tomorrow

A Vision For The Future Of The Great Traditions by Philosopher Ken Wilber

A single purpose lies at the heart of all the great religious traditions: awakening to the astonishing reality of the true nature of ourselves and the universe. At the same time, through centuries of cultural accretion and focus on myth and ritual as ends in themselves, this core insight has become obscured. We need a path for re-envisioning a religion of the future that acknowledges the evolution of humanity in every realm while remaining faithful to that original spiritual vision. For the traditions to attract modern men and women, they must incorporate the extraordinary number of scientific truths learned about human nature in just the past hundred years—for example, about the mind and brain, emotions, and the growth of consciousness—that the ancients were simply unaware of and thus were unable to include in their meditative systems. What we need is a thrilling call for wholeness, inclusiveness, and unity in the religions of tomorrow.

​Presentation by Gregory Bodekor

Art, whether it's visual or the performing arts, has a very profound effect on people. Art has shaped and inspired thousands of years of civilization, as made evident by the countless museums, galleries, theaters and venues around the world to this day. Art effects each person differently, which is the true beauty of art.​Recurring mythic formulas embedded in life organizes time, space and social relationships into creative dances of ceremonies, myths, sagas, legends, stories, folktales, symbols, languages, gestures, artifacts, and shared spiritual practices such as, meditation, gratitude, rituals, singing, chanting, and pilgrimage to holy places.

​ These activities over time have also influenced art forms such as architecture, vestments, jewelry, icons, statuary, glass windows, music, poetry, and dance. These constructs can reduce human anxieties by explaining the unknown or making it understandable, providing comfort in times of crisis, sanctioning a range of human conduct with notions of right and wrong, setting precedents for acceptable behavior, and/or transferring the burden of making decisions from human to supernatural beings. As Theosophy has points out, we continue to re-enact evolutionary life across cultures in human imaginative works even today.

Culture may be defined as the abstract values, beliefs, and perceptions of the world--i.e. a world view--that shape, and are reflected in, a people’s behavior. Culture encompasses all that is human-made, learned and transmitted, especially through language, rather than what is inherited biologically. People are not born with a "culture"; they learn "culture" through the process of enculturation. People develop and maintain cultures to deal with basic problems like survival and other issues (geographical, social, economic, philosophical, etc.) that concern them. To take root and survive, a culture must satisfy the basic needs of people who live by its rules, develop means to ensure its transmission and continuity across generations, and provide an orderly existence for members of the society.

A culture must develop viable ways to balance individuals' self-interests with the community’s needs, which can be a formidable challenge because human societies are made up of individuals and groups with different interests. Typically, the dominant group’s interests are most influential and better served by a culture's worldview and lifeways than are the interests of other subordinated groups within a culture.

​ Successful cultures are dynamic, rather static: that is, long-term survival requires that a culture be able to change to adapt to new circumstances and influences, and/or its people's changing perceptions of existing circumstances. ​​